Little Ballads Of Timely Warning; II: On Malicious Cruelty To Harmless Creatures

The cruelty of P. L. Brown     (He had ten toes as good as mine)     Was known to every one in town,     And, if he never harmed a noun,     He loved to make verbs shriek and whine.     The To be familys just complaints     (Brown had ten toes as good as mine)     Made Brown cast off the last restraints:     He smashed the Is nots into Aints     And kicked both mood and tense supine.     Infinitives were Browns dislike     (Brown, as I said, had ten good toes)     And he would pinch and shake and strike     Infinitives, or, with a pike,     Prod them and then laugh at their woes.     At length this Brown more cruel grew     (Ten toes, all good ones, then had Brown)     And to his woodshed door he drew     A young infinitive and threw     The poor, meek creature roughly down,     And while the poor thing weakly flopped,     Brown (ten good toes he had, the brute!)     Got out his chopping block and dropped     The martyr on it and then propped     His victim firmly with his boot.     He raised his axe! He brandished it!     (Ye gods of grammar, interpose!)     He brought it down full force all fit     The poor infinitive to split     (Brown after that had but six toes! Warning     Infinitives, by this we see.     Should not he split too recklessl